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Making our house a home: the kitchen & dining room

We’re 17 days away from moving, and inching ever closer to making our house gorgeous!

Brian deserves a medal. I don’t know who would give it to him, but somebody needs to get on that. He has gone full steam with plastering, sanding, painting, and correcting the imperfections of age to make our house the best it can be. I know that it’s frustrating for him at times – seemingly easy projects take on a life of their own, and every time he turns around he thinks of another item to add to the list – but every hour he spends getting dirty over there is another hour closer to grinning over the finished product.

I’m also so grateful for my in-laws. I helped out with cleaning, stripping wallpaper, and of course picking paint colors (and yes, painting Arthur’s nursery – oh yeah, guys we’re having a boy!), but the tasks at hand now cross the line into “could be unsafe for the pregnant chick” and I’ve been relegated to heading up the packing effort in our apartment. My in-laws have filled the gap, making several day-long visits with food and encouragement, painting and cleaning and running out for extra supplies when what we have just didn’t go far enough. We wouldn’t be where we are today without their help.

My mom, meanwhile, has pitched in on the packing side. It’s nice to have someone there with me who really understands how I work and who isn’t afraid to jump in and start pitching things (not without asking, of course!)

Our progress so far…

The Kitchen

Our kitchen…well, let’s just say an old woman lived there. An old woman who liked old-woman wallpaper patterns. (And wallpaper in general? Yeesh…) Two different patterns competed for “grandma’s house” old-timey charm with only a chair rail to separate them and, well, they were ugly.

Not, however, as ugly as the walls they covered.

Once the outer layer of paper disappeared, we had to contend with old glue and paper remnants; multiple coats of now-peeling paint, and cracks in the wall from settling over the years. Still a work in progress, our kitchen looks many times better than it did the first day…

Mid-paper peel. If you look closely you can see the ugly upper paper on the floor…

My hard-working MIL cleaning glue off of the lower level of the wall.

Making progress…paper and glue are off of everything except the ceiling!

Almost there! The kitchen nook after 1-2 coats of plaster and hours of work.

Next steps: cover the room with a coat of primer/sealer paint and plaster to even out the places where old paint has peeled, and then new coats of yellow!

The Dining Room

Our dining room is gorgeous. We stripped the carpet out the very first night we had keys, and once we removed the tack strips it was all a matter of paint! (And new blinds – what is it with old people and ugly things?)

We started by painting the ceiling and upper molding a crisp white. Over the last few days, my in-laws have transformed the walls from a boring too-white-to-be-eggshell to…

Geranium, coat 1

Geranium – the finished product!

Next up will be a coat of white on the trim, door to the upstairs, and built-in china cabinet…and a shopping trip for some new blinds. Note: I love the chandelier – vintage and crafted in Italy, its distressed bronze is a chic touch to the room and will be a focal point of the rest of the decor.

I can’t help but be totally excited about all of this – and I can’t wait until the next update (and of course to live there full-time)!